AURELIAN, one of the Roman emperors, was the son of a peasant, and a native of Sirmium in Pan nonia. He entered the army as a common soldier, and was so distinguished by his extraordinary strength and courage, that he rose successively to the rank of a centurian, a tribune, the prefect of a legion, the in spector of the camp, the general of a frontier, and, at length, to the important office of commander in chief of the cavalry. He was invested with the con sulship by the influence of the emperor Valerian ; and married the daughter of Ulpius Crinitus, a senator of the highest rank and merit. At 'the death of Clau dius II., who recommended him as his successor, he was saluted emperor by the army, A. D. 270; and their election was soon confirmed by the voice of the senate. Aurelian continued to reign only four years and nine months ; but every instant of that short period was marked by some memorable atchievement. In the course of the year 270, he put an end to the war with the Goths; and repeatedly routed the Ger mans, who had invaded Italy. Returning to Rome, where some disturbances had taken place during his absence, he put to death several of the senators, who had been suspected of exciting these commotions ; and by the severity of his conduct in this instance, estranged from himself, in a great degree, the affections of the people. After having repaired and extended the walls of the city, in the beginning of the year 271, he recovered Gaul, Spain, and Britain from the usurpation of Tebricus, governor of Aquitaine. In 272 he turned his arms against Zenobia, the cele brated queen of Palmyra, who had established a narchy upon the ruins of the.empire in the east, and had maintained her authority during the space of five or six years. He gained possession of Tyana in Cappadocia, after an obstinate resistance; and treat ed the inhabitants with the utmost lenity, from re spect to the memory of their countryman Apollonius. Having defeated the forces of Zenobia in the neigh bourhood of Antioch, he entered that place in tri umph, and conciliated the citizens by the mildness of his measures. He gained a second victory near the city of Emesa ; advanced, through all the obstacles • of the sandy desert and plundering Arabs, to the siege of Palmyra; cut off the succours, which were sent from Persia for its relief; and at length intercepted the queen, when attempting to make her escape from the city. Her capital surrendered very soon after, upon condition that the lives of the inhabitants should be spared ; but a few of. the. queen's ablest counsel lors, among whom was the celebrated Longinus, were afterwards sacrificed at Einesa to the vengeance of the.conqueror. A short time after his departure, the Palmyreans broke out into open rebellion; massacred the governor and garrison, left in their city ; and pro claimed a kinsman of Zenobia their sovereign. But the avenging conqueror, naturally severe, and now roused into fury by the presumption of this revolt, and the slaughter of his troops, was soon at their gates, entered the city without opposition, put the inhabitants to the sword without distinction, and re duced that short-lived metropolis to a state of ruin, from which it never recovered. After having sup pressed an insurrection, which had been excited at Alexandria by an adventurer named Firmus, whom he caused to be tortured and put to death, he return ed to Rome in 274, and was honoured with a more splendid triumph than had ever been witnessed even Non that city of triumphs. * On this occasion, he made his captives subservient to his military glory, but after wards treated them with the greatest humanity and kindness. He gave to Zenobia lands and possessions
in the neighbourhood of Tivoli; and appointed Tetri cus governor of Lucania. Out of the spoils of his vic tories he built a magnificent temple to the sun, in whose service his mother had been an inferior priestess, and for whose worship he always professed a peculiar veneration., He applied himself with the utmost ac tivity, during this short period of peace, to the sup pression of various abuses, the prevention of crimes, and the general reformation of manners. He remit ted all the debts, which had become due, in the course of the year, from private persons to the pub lic treasury ; and, at the same time, published an act of oblivion, with respect to all crimes committed against the state, previous to that date. He in creased the largcsses, bestowed upon the common people ; and, as he was himself a plebeian, he always manifested a peculiar predilection towards that order of his subjects. The discontent, which this partiality excited among the senatorial and equestrian ranks, seems to have been the real cause of a very formidable insurrection, which broke out at Rome upon his at tempting to restore the integrity of the coin ; and which was not quelled till after a bloody engagement had been fought with the insurgents on the Cxlian hill. Exasperated by this unprovoked rebellion, Aurelian let loose all the natural cruelty of his disposition ; and his vengeance was not satiated till he had shed a torrent of the noblest blood in the empire. One of his own nephews was involved in this bloody prose cution ; and the senate was deprived of its most il lustrious members. About the close of,the year 274 or the beginning of 275, the emperor marched to wards Persia at the head of a well-disciplined army. Suspecting one of Isis secretaries of extortion, he had charged him with the crime, and threatened him with punishment. The offender, whose name was Mnes -theus, aware of his danger, sought safety for himself by alarming the fears of others. Counterfeiting his master's writing, he shewcd io some of the principal officers of the army a list of names, which he pre tended to have found in the emperor's closet, and in which they were all devoted to death. Anxious to avert this impending destruction, they instantly unit ed with the traitor, fell upon Aufelian on the march from Byzantium, and dispatched him with many wounds. The imposition, however, was soon dis covered; Mnestheus was devoted to the rage of wild beasts ; and the obsequies of the emperor solemnized with the greatest pomp.
The talents of Aurelian were better suited to the command of an army, than to the government of an empire ; and he acted towards his subjects more like a conqueror than a sovereign. He was unequalled in point of personal prowess ; and it is affirmed that, in one engagement, he slew forty-eight Of the enemy with his own hand. In order to distinguish him from another person of the same name, and in reference to his readiness for any encounter, he was called by the soldiers Aurelianus manu " Aurelian wit)", his hand upon his sword." He exercised the strictest discipline in the army; and punished with the utmost severity every neglect of duty, or instance of licen tiousness in the conduct of his troops. He was ca pable of great generosity; but his stern justice often degenerated into savage cruelty; and he is ranked not so much among the good, as among the useful princes. See Gibbon's Rom. Hist. vol. ii. p. 15-56. Anc. Tin. Hist. vol. xv. p. 449-464.. Vopiscus, Hist. Aug. p. 210-225. (q)